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Works

Here users can find the writings of Chesnutt across multiple genres: all works of fiction he published in his lifetime, including five books and dozens of short stories; a sampling of more than a dozen of his essays and speeches; a handful of Chesnutt-authored reviews; and two poems. For these works, we try whenever possible to provide both a transcription and digital images of the individual printed pages.

All Works

106 items

Frisk's First Rat

  • Date: March 20, 1875
  • Creator(s): Chesnutt, Charles W. (Waddell)
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Educator

Uncle Peter's House

  • Date: December 9, 1885; December 10, 1885
  • Creator(s): Chesnutt, Charles W. (Waddell)
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Pittsburgh Chronicle Telegraph

The Marrow of Tradition

  • Date: 1901
  • Creator(s): Chesnutt, Charles W. (Waddell)
  • Format: book
  • Source: Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin & Co.

The Colonel's Dream

  • Date: 1905
  • Creator(s): Chesnutt, Charles W. (Waddell)
  • Format: book
  • Source: New York: Doubleday, Page, & Company

A Woman and a Burglar

  • Date: January 12, 1887
  • Creator(s): Chesnutt, Charles W. (Waddell)
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The McHenry (IL) Plaindealer

Concerning Father

  • Date: May 1930
  • Creator(s): Chesnutt, Charles W. (Waddell)
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Crisis

Cartwright's Mistake

  • Date: September 19, 1888
  • Creator(s): Chesnutt, Charles W. (Waddell)
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Buffalo Morning Express and Illustrated Buffalo Express

Cicely's Dream

  • Date: 1899
  • Creator(s): Chesnutt, Charles W. (Waddell)
  • Format: book
  • Source: Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company

Baxter's Procrustes

  • Date: June 1904
  • Creator(s): Chesnutt, Charles W. (Waddell)
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Atlantic Monthly

A Tight Boot

  • Date: January 28, 1886
  • Creator(s): Chesnutt, Charles W. (Waddell)
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Boston Daily Globe

A Busy Day in a Lawyer's Office

  • Date: January 15, 1887
  • Creator(s): Chesnutt, Charles W. (Waddell)
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Tid-Bits

The Fall of Adam

  • Date: December 25, 1886
  • Creator(s): Chesnutt, Charles W. (Waddell)
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Family Fiction

Charles W. Chesnutt's Own View of His New Story The Marrow of Tradition

  • Date: October 20, 1901
  • Creator(s): Chesnutt, Charles W. (Waddell)
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Cleveland World

A Cause Célèbre

  • Date: January 14, 1891
  • Creator(s): Chesnutt, Charles W. (Waddell)
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Puck

Pussy Meow: The Autobiography of a Cat, S. L. Patteson

  • Date: November 1901
  • Creator(s): Chesnutt, Charles W. (Waddell)
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Modern Culture

Aunt Lucy's Search

  • Date: April 16, 1887
  • Creator(s): Chesnutt, Charles W. (Waddell)
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Family Fiction

A Doubtful Success

  • Date: February 17, 1888
  • Creator(s): Chesnutt, Charles W. (Waddell)
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Daily Inter Ocean

A Plea for the American Negro

  • Date: February 1900
  • Creator(s): Chesnutt, Charles W. (Waddell)
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Critic

Frederick Douglass

  • Date: 1899
  • Creator(s): Chesnutt, Charles W. (Waddell)
  • Format: book
  • Source: Boston, Massachusetts: Small, Maynard & Company

The House Behind the Cedars

  • Date: 1900
  • Creator(s): Chesnutt, Charles W. (Waddell)
  • Format: book
  • Source: Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co.

A Roman Antique

  • Date: July 17, 1889
  • Creator(s): Chesnutt, Charles W. (Waddell)
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Puck

Dave's Neckliss

  • Date: October, 1889
  • Creator(s): Chesnutt, Charles W. (Waddell)
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Atlantic Monthly

The Wife of His Youth

  • Date: July 1898
  • Creator(s): Chesnutt, Charles W. (Waddell)
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Atlantic Monthly

A Deep Sleeper

  • Date: March 11, 1893
  • Creator(s): Chesnutt, Charles W. (Waddell)
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Two Tales

The Sheriff's Children

  • Date: November 7, 1889
  • Creator(s): Chesnutt, Charles W. (Waddell)
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Independent

How a Good Man Went Wrong

  • Date: November 28, 1888
  • Creator(s): Chesnutt, Charles W. (Waddell)
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Puck

Gratitude

  • Date: December 26, 1888
  • Creator(s): Chesnutt, Charles W. (Waddell)
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Puck

The Conjurer's Revenge

  • Date: June 1889
  • Creator(s): Chesnutt, Charles W. (Waddell)
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Overland Monthly

A Soulless Corporation

  • Date: April 16, 1887
  • Creator(s): Chesnutt, Charles W. (Waddell)
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Tid-Bits

The Wives

  • Date: October 8, 1886
  • Creator(s): Chesnutt, Charles W. (Waddell)
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Boston Daily Globe

A Bad Night

  • Date: July 22, 1886
  • Creator(s): Chesnutt, Charles W. (Waddell)
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Pittsburgh Chronicle Telegraph

The Goophered Grapevine

  • Date: August 1887
  • Creator(s): Chesnutt, Charles W. (Waddell)
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Atlantic Monthly

Po' Sandy

  • Date: May 1888
  • Creator(s): Chesnutt, Charles W. (Waddell)
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Atlantic Monthly

A Secret Ally

  • Date: September 19, 1887
  • Creator(s): Chesnutt, Charles W. (Waddell)
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Chicago Daily Inter Ocean

An Eloquent Appeal

  • Date: June 6, 1888
  • Creator(s): Chesnutt, Charles W. (Waddell)
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Puck

A Midnight Adventure

  • Date: December 6, 1887
  • Creator(s): Chesnutt, Charles W. (Waddell)
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Chicago Daily Inter Ocean

The Origin of the Hatchet Story

  • Date: April 24, 1889
  • Creator(s): Chesnutt, Charles W. (Waddell)
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Puck

A Fatal Restriction

  • Date: May 1, 1889
  • Creator(s): Chesnutt, Charles W. (Waddell)
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Puck

Appreciation

  • Date: April 20, 1887
  • Creator(s): Chesnutt, Charles W. (Waddell)
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Puck

She Reminded Him

  • Date: September 21, 1887
  • Creator(s): Chesnutt, Charles W. (Waddell)
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Puck

Mr. Taylor's Funeral

  • Date: April 1915; May 1915
  • Creator(s): Chesnutt, Charles W. (Waddell)
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Crisis

What is a White Man?

  • Date: May 30, 1889
  • Creator(s): Chesnutt, Charles W. (Waddell)
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Independent

The Doll

  • Date: April 1912
  • Creator(s): Chesnutt, Charles W. (Waddell)
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Crisis

The Marked Tree

  • Date: December 1924; January 1925
  • Creator(s): Chesnutt, Charles W. (Waddell)
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Crisis

A Multitude of Counselors

  • Date: April 2, 1891
  • Creator(s): Chesnutt, Charles W. (Waddell)
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Independent

Obliterating the Color Line

  • Date: October 23, 1901
  • Creator(s): Chesnutt, Charles W. (Waddell)
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: The Cleveland World

Superstitions and Folk-lore of the South

  • Date: May 1901
  • Creator(s): Chesnutt, Charles W. (Waddell)
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Modern Culture

The Free Colored People of North Carolina

  • Date: March 1902
  • Creator(s): Chesnutt, Charles W. (Waddell)
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Southern Workman

The Disfranchisement of the Negro

  • Date: 1903
  • Creator(s): Chesnutt, Charles W. (Waddell)
  • Format: book
  • Source: New York: J. Pott & Company

Peonage, or the New Slavery

  • Date: September 1904
  • Creator(s): Chesnutt, Charles W. (Waddell)
  • Format: periodical
  • Source: Voice of the Negro
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